Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg took a profanity-filled turn as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in a segment referred to as “An Even Tempered Apology.” It was, predictably, anything but, as Samberg’s Emanuel unleashed on a tirade of f-bombs and insults. He hit the progressive Democrats (“f*cking turncoats”) over “Retardgate,” but then set his sights on Sarah Palin, who called for his resignation on Facebook. The nicest thing he calls her is a “gimmick.”

This afternoon, Twitter followers of Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria may have gotten an eyeful when they followed a link tweeted from the star’s official account. In a since deleted message, Longoria pointed fans toward what was advertised as her husband, NBA star Tony Parker‘s Twitter account. “Hello everyone. My husband’s real twitter is @tpnetwork, send him a message!” she wrote. Surprise: it’s porn!

A Saturday afternoon Fox News report revealed much about the situation on the ground at the Tea Party Convention this weekend in the lead up to Sarah Palin‘s keynote address. The Fox reporter, though, was careful to note that this convention is by no means representative of the entire movement, focusing on the issue of the Birthers, who believe President Obama is not a natural born citizen and are a cause for concern among conservatives wishing to focus more on substantive (factual?) issues.

There was a time, mere months ago, when everyone cared about Levi Johnston‘s Playgirl appearance. It’s fair to say, though, that at this point the flame hardly flickers. After all, we all here on the internet really milked this one, leaving the (penis-less!) product pretty underwhelming. Nonetheless, here’s the cover in all its glory!

An extensive feature in today’s New York Times calls Sarah Palin “a new breed of unelected public figure operating in an environment in which politics, news media and celebrity are fused as never before,” painting her as an unstoppable national brand and even “as big a celebrity as Princess Di,” according to one Alaskan journalist.

Rachel Maddow was not pleased with the National Tea Party Convention’s opening speech from Rep. Tom Tancredo — a “big, loud racist bang,” she called Tancredo’s advocacy for a literacy test for voters. “People who could not even spell the word vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House,” Tancredo said, leading Maddow to compare the crowd to the Ku Klux Klan.

Yesterday, we noticed that the New York Times profile of a shifting, and possibly floundering, Harper’s magazine focused on the increasingly second-guessed moves of publisher Rick MacArthur. Tuesday, in a follow-up by the Observer‘s John Koblin, Harper’s staffers are called “queasy” about MacArthur’s “increased visibility in their lives.” Not exactly a vote of confidence in a time of turmoil.

Aol.’s technology and consumer electronics blog Engadget has closed their comments sections after a huge burst of “trollish” feedback spurred by increased traffic due to iPad coverage. “Hey guys, we know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand,” wrote editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky in a post this morning. It’s like putting the internet in time out!

Jake Dobkin, the publisher and co-founder of New York City local news blog Gothamist, will appear on a New York Times panel for executives on Thursday, moderated by Times media critic David Carr. But the mention of the Times as “a credible editorial resource” sent Dobkin off on a rampage of a response, berating the paper in an email that he also posted on his public Facebook.

Once upon a time, Mandy Stadtmiller was the dating columnist at the New York Post. These days, she’s gone gonzo — becoming the story by flying to Las Vegas to rendezvous with our great nation’s first legal gigolo, “Markus,” for today’s Post cover story. This ain’t American Gigolo; it’s something far more embarrassing.

David Brooks, in Tuesday’s New York Times op-ed “The Geezers’ Crusade,” writes about the political implications of aging in our world. Youth, he says, is overrated in making change. Instead, it’s the old people — taking money, freedom and opportunity more than ever before — who need to catalyze progression: “Only the old can lead a generativity revolution.”

As a 24-year-old reporter Rick MacArthur wanted a magazine, so his father bought him one called Harper’s. Thirty years later, MacArthur is the publisher of a once again struggling Harper’s, and the subject of a fascinating New York Times piece today about the recent and sudden firing of editor Roger D. Hodge.

On Sunday, we summarized Scott Brown‘s high-profile sit down on This Week with Barbara Walters, but never addressed what is perhaps Brown’s biggest legacy so far. That’s right: his daughters are “available!” When Barbara brought it up, Brown motioned with a gun to his head, and then made an offer, on behalf of Ayla, to Simon Cowell of American Idol.

Sunday morning on State of the Union, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat whose term is coming to a close, was asked, “Would you want to be a Democrat on the ballot this year?” by John King. Granholm’s answer was far from comforting: “No, no!” she responded definitively and with a hearty chuckle. “Personally, no, I’m glad I’m not on the ballot at all. I wouldn’t want to be an incumbent on the ballot,” she reiterated. A candid response, indeed, and you know — truth hurts?

That’s the question poised in Clark Hoyt‘s public editor column in the New York Times this Sunday, as Game Change tops the paper’s nonfiction best-sellers list. The “racy” stories of “dysfunctional” relationships are captivaating, but led Hoyt to a question of journalistic ethics: “How do you deal with a talker of a book reported in a way that the paper’s own standards do not permit?”

CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley, currently the #65 TV Reporter on the Mediaite Power Grid, has just been named the new anchor of CNN’s Sunday morning program State of the Union. Crowley will take over started next Sunday, February 7th, replacing John King, who launched State of the Union just over a year ago. King will move to host the the weekday CNN program at 7 pmET.

Conservative vigilante videographer James O’Keefe was a man of the web — making a name for himself online, most notably at Big Government, but also on the sites that tracked his exploits (ahem). Then Fox News took notice — and how could they not? Now, O’Keefe and his associates have landed on the front page of the New York Times — but not exactly under ideal circumstances.

New York magazine lost two high-ranking employees this week: deputy editor Hugo Lindgren to the revamped Bloomberg BusinessWeek and online managing editor Jessica Coen to Gawker Media’s Jezebel. Gawker’s reacquisition of Coen is the fourth in a recent trend: medium-to-high profile bloggers and reporters, nursed as neophytes on Nick Denton‘s teat, coming back to Gawker Media for a second time. Does this company represent online media’s last best hope?

At a certain point — years ago, probably — the Fox News slogan “Fair & Balanced” became a tongue-in-cheek challenge to detractors. Men lie, women lie, politicians lie — numbers don’t, and Fox’s domination in the ratings allows them to more or less do and say as they please. You don’t like it? Change the channel. But what’s one more example? Inside a Fox hard news anchor praises the GOP’s ideas with Rick Santorum.

The Tea Party movement got a lot of play on last night’s On The Record with Greta Van Susteren. Mike Huckabee voiced his support for the group in populist tones, while Sarah Palin, spoke of her ties to the Party as well. “Oh, you betcha I’m going to be there,” Palin said of the national convention where she will be paid $150,000 to speak. But trouble has been brewing.

Charles M. Blow, in Saturday’s New York Times op-ed “Lost in Translation” argues that Obama’s rhetorical style is too professorial and complicated to convince anyone. “They’re suspicious of complexity,” Blow writes, and “Obama has to accept that today’s information environment is broad and shallow.”

Mike Huckabee spoke on Fox News yesterday about the Tea Party Movement as a crucial new voting block, lending legitimacy to a group that has been met with derision and mockery. “I’m hoping the Tea Party people will be absorbed into a solid and principled Republican party,” said Huckabee, sounding like someone certainly running for office as a populist.

In his appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show today, Jay Leno told the host that “NBC could not have handled it worse, from 2004 onward,” while being interviewed for the first time about his return to The Tonight Show. Leno went on to say he was “devastated” when NBC honcho Jeff Zucker asked him to pass on The Tonight Show six years ago, and that he told “a little white lie” in sharing his support publicly for Conan O’Brien.

At President Obama‘s town hall meeting today in Tampa, Florida — teased in last night’s State of the Union — a student and former Obama campaign volunteer from the University of South Florida attacked the president in question form about the United States’ continued financial support of Israel despite promises of promoting human rights worldwide. After calming the boisterous crowd, Obama “talked about the Middle East generally,” gently skirting the fiery question. He spoke slowly and deliberately, acknowledging the “passions,” but reiterating that Israel is “one of our strongest allies” and “a vibrant democracy.”

James O’Keefe — the upstart investigative filmmaker whose undercover video work got ACORN’s federal funding stripped — has been arrested by the FBI in Louisiana for attempting to wiretap the offices of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, according to the Times-Picayune. Mediaite chronicled O’Keefe’s rise to prominence last fall, from his big ACORN take down to his Fox News pimp costume. Update: the US Attorney’s office released details in a statement, after the jump.